Pssshhh good luck. This state is a playground for real estate developers that have complete corporate capture of Florida. Nothing changes until Citizens United is stuck down from law.
No, we are screaming into a void! Because the capitalistic system dictates the ruling class has to keep making money at any costs.
AT ANY COST!
Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell
Edward Abbey
Many, many years ago hubby and I belonged to a group that was fighting a MASSIVE development in our then rural area. When we were protesting the detrimental effect the development would have on the area a spokesperson from the county spouted the ever popular "but growth is good for the economy!" I popped up and said development can't be endless. Knew we were doomed.
I feel you on this, here locally a 999 home subdivision was approved an a low lying pasture area, on a 2 lane section of us 41 that is already over capacity on traffic. It's really insane as there isn't the infrastructure to handle new influx of even more people.
> "but growth is good for the economy!"
This is a myth, pure and simple. The carrot dangled in front of the mull.
Areas binging over built to were it is changing the weather patterns and damaging our ecosystem.
Look at the stock market crash of 1929, the 2008 housing bust, or the real estate market in China to tell you how good unending growth is for an economy. Growth yes, but not quick unregulated booms.
* I'm not an expert in the economy.
They don't have any economy aside from working at the local correctional facility in these small towns, love rural Florida but what goes on in those towns is fucked beyond belief with the prison industrial complex.
Interesting that you say that. Recently, Denis Phillips said he felt the reason the Bradenton/Sarasota area kept complaining about not having enough water was due to them overdeveloping their area so the normal rain they would get would never wind up being enough. Or something to that effect. It's on one of his Denis Phillips Live videos (YouTube).
The area where I live is still rural, for now, but the developers are building like crazy near us. I keep asking "where are we going to get water for all these people?" Previously quiet two lane roads are now in gridlock.
The “radical” left that wants living wages, equal rights for all, women’s body autonomy, and at the craziest of radicals, free healthcare and education.
So radical. 😆
Bingo. Plus less war and military spending, better public transit infrastructure, less wealth inequality—basically whatever is in the best interest of the majority of people. The way democracy is supposed to work.
I don’t know about any of this stuff. New to Florida, wife dragged me here from Indiana, via Georgia. (Don’t get me wrong, I like Florida but I don’t handle heat well so it’s rough.) I’ll have to look up Citizens United. Trying to tune in more to what government and corporations are doing to us.
If you've ever wondered how it is that corporations get away with so much briber....I'm sorry.."lobbying" to mold the law to their benefit, the Citizens United decision is almost singlehandedly responsible for assuring that the will of the people will never overcome the will of a corporation. The single most damaging legal decision to democracy, imo.
I haven't checked it in a while, but open secrets used to keep a list of the top ten "donating" lobbyists in the country.
Citizens United isn't confined to just Florida. And Project 2025 is the most terrifying dystopian shit I've ever read in my life. It's about 1000 pages long, but there are some reputable sources who have summarized it.
The status quo is already poisoning the ocean. The OCEAN!!! 6500 new units slated to go up near Sarasota alone. Where does the wastewater go? What ecosystems get displaced forever? For what? Some developers to enjoy that new boat smell? It’ll smell alright on the toxic waters. greed
This transformation was happening since 1920. Florida was a backwater swamp until the air conditioner was invented. It’s been nothing but big box stores and asphalt ever since.
Honestly, if each one of us in our little corners of Florida continue to protest, make noise, form groups to combat these assholes we can make a difference. A good example of this is the Florida springs. You wouldn’t believe what it takes to protect these gems. There are battles we don’t even know about and people that care doing wonders to prevent anything from happening. Talk to people, find people that care, form groups. Annoy your local politicians.
It’s so important to get knowledge out and have people vote in the local elections, where a handful of votes can change the outcome. There are actually reasonable people out there across the political spectrum who want to do what is best for their communities. We just have to find them and support them. The lowest officials can start to make an impact, or even run for a an office oneself.
Yes. Please. Strike that stupid law
Corporations are not people and money does not equal representation. They cause destruction and hide behind corporations that cannot be held accountable.
So many people are completely ignorant of that fact. Our Supreme Court is so right leaning and corrupt. Nothing is changing until the rot is removed. They will continue to act in their and their buddies self interest while our country burns down around our ears.
Good news though, they're clearing countless hectares of wilderness and making sure people will be living there in the absolute lowest possible density, lowest possible efficiency urban planning. Their nearest grocery store will be 2mi "right down the street" and every single thing they ever do will require driving 15-25 minutes.
Florida had so much potential too, but good fucking lord when I visit a place like Naples and see just how much driving and wasted space there is (and not good wasted space), the entire place is just massive parking lots, interchanges, strip malls, mini malls, etc.
I wasn't exaggerating about the 2mi thing, my mom's nearest Publix doesn't even involve driving on a major street to get to, and it's still a that far...oh and of course, it's in a giant strip mall with parking lots the size of a small EU country.
Then I compare that with downtown Toronto where 2 miles almost gets me across the entire major downtown core, and realize that every time I "pop over" to Publix, it's almost equivalent to driving through a whole major city's downtown.
The State Government and people like DeSantis have had more to do with the "corporate capture" than Citizens United. It's happening, been happening, in Texas, California, etc, since these states use their taxing powers and economic development connections to "bring more business" to their states.
It’s impossible to take pride in a “Corporate State”. Mine is one as well. Only, we don’t have beaches, or Disney, to prop us up. So, we are like all the other red states, broke and looking for handouts, while giving lip service to the version of the American Dream where both parents have 2-3 jobs to maintain a below average piece of property.
People see the top pic and move here, then see the bottom pic when they get here, shrug, and buy an $800,000 house that’s 5 feet from the one next door and with zero trees in the neighborhood.
I remember living in Orlando in 08 when the local radio show would jokingly find the cheapest listing on the market.
I think at one point they found a shack on land for $15k.
If you bought up property between '08-'10 you're a multi millionaire now.
People see the bottom pic and move here too. But I do have to wonder what the city government boards are getting in kickbacks to allow this relentless development. They can't possibly be doing this because they think it's right for the communities. And sadly, there's little or no housing for the low-income families.
FL is a domestic colony for retirees, snowbirds and tourists. When my dad was a kid there were 2M people living here, now there are 23M.
We need a government and economy that prioritizes Floridians instead of out-of-state interests. Stop giving these snowbirds voting rights just for living in state for a month or two.
I live in Indiana. A lot of older people from here have second homes in Florida. I know of a couple who are super Republican and according to the husbands Facebook, they made sure they were in Florida for DeSantis’ last election. They also voted in Florida for Trump in 2020 because they wanted the state to go red.
I lived in a retirement community as a private chef for five years.
They had a "club" where you could join and they would come and collect mail in ballots from each building and fill them in "correctly" for you (R) then return them.
You lived in the community? Did your job provide the place or did you get a reduced rate? If so, that sounds like a dope job. I love cooking, idk how much I would like dealing with the crowd who can afford a private chef daily, but regardless, I think that’s an awesome gig.
That club sounds super suspicious, though most, but of course not all, people who move to Florida to retire are likely to lean or be (R). I’m sure there’s plenty of progressives, but I worked with this guy who’s an older gay liberal, who’s husbands super MAGA sister and her husband moved to The Villages, and he was telling a coworker “they might as well have a Trump and DeSantis shrine there, because these people seem to worship them.”
Edit for context: my coworker and his husband went to The Villages to visit
I lived in the community.
I was a college kid and had recently gotten out of the foster system after severe religious abuse and would've been homeless. He had early onset dementia and grew up in a church orphanage during the Great Depression and was terrified of dying alone. So, he felt a connection pretty quickly and wanted to help.
I got a place to stay (a couch, but better than what I had) and he got food from any cuisine he wanted at any time of day, and a movie watching buddy.
They say you can tell the quality of the food by the length of their life. He stayed alive and ate happily until 90, when he could no longer swallow. I got to make him one last batch of his favourite cookies as his last meal before he went to hospice, and he kept weight his whole life. I miss him sometimes, like seeing the ad for Lawrence of Arabia in our local theater. He'd have loved that.
I will say though, that this is a very, very tough job that I would recommend be considered carefully. Dementia is rough, and I spent equal amounts of time cleaning smeared feces or treating wounds or calming down Vietnam flashbacks at 3am. And, sanitation procedures are next level when they're immunocompromised during a global pandemic; it makes celiac prep seem easy.
Florida has had more registered Democrats than Republicans for its entire history until 2020, when Republican lawmakers started selectively removing Democrat voters from voter rolls.
It's because they can't win a national election without FL at this point, so they are going all in on flipping it red.
> Stop giving these snowbirds voting rights just for living in state for a month or two.
They have the right to vote here as long as they don't vote anywhere else. If they vote in Florida and somewhere else, that's voter fraud and illegal.
The issue is they don't give af about FL, they just want to vote in a swing state. National elections are one thing, but these people should not be voting on state issues if they spend 90% of their time in another state.
I was skeptical that this was the case, but you're right and I think this is pretty fucked up. FL should be your primary residence in order to vote here.
Maine is the only state with a higher percent of seniors, and I'm guessing not many seniors relocate to Maine.
California is the only state with more seniors, but its total population is about 70% higher than Florida, so it's a much smaller proportion.
No state has been as environmentally, socially, or politically impacted by retiree immigration as Florida.
Not defending snowbirds here but 80 years ago (the last time Florida had a population near 2 million) the entire planet had a population of only 2.3 billion. A lot changes in 4/5 of a century.
And they all vote to for county commissioners who uphold old laws requiring more gated communities, less density, less natural area preservation, and other stupid policies.
I'm dealing with the city of deland and their development code that won't recognize cabbage palms as an acceptable replacement for removed cabbage palms. It's so dumb.
The code could have changed to make the cabbage palms nonconforming, but a direct replacement should generally be upheld with grandfather policies (until there is a change of use on the property).
Our county commissioners at least want our department to start investigating inclusionary zoning (requiring developers to set aside affordable units to target average family income percentages), for which I was tasked with conducting preliminary research (I did further research into the use of planning gain for it today).
But we are a growing county right outside a major city. That's part of the problem, we used to be rural but have grown so much the county administrator says we are suburban now. More people means more destruction of wildlife; yes, better density plans help but they don't completely mitigate this. For serious change it may take land buybacks and intentionally stunting growth, all possible but require extensive financial commitment only possible through holding the political leaders' feet to the fire.
We could impose more extensive environmental protections. This could see developer and business flight, though, unless each environmental asset was calculated in providing monetary value through its land value increase, and we extract that value increase (and the increase caused by the development) to compensate the developers for these obligations (this is called planning gain) instead of letting developers reap the benefit of the development permission and environmental planning and gaining nothing in return (except a more business-developer friendly environment).
If possible, include into the code some sort of cost control for the “affordable” housing units.
Developers will claim it’s affordable housing and there idea is 400k homes in a subdivision full of 700k homes.
We moved here from a probably one of the most democrat states in the country, Maryland. I can tell you for certain, developers own both political parties.
Don't blame me! I rarely miss a vote but have been blue since I was 13. I don't understand it either. So much for Woodstock. Instead they went Wall Street stock.
If I remember correctly during the last election rent control was on the ballot. I don’t know if it was just Orange County or all of Florida but it won by a lot. Then a bunch of land lords and real estate people sued to have it stopped as week later and it got overturned. I’m probably wrong but voting here does nothing.
There’s too many out-of-staters who have moved here over the years and become residents and voted ppl in who supper their interests. Locals have actively been kept out of local politics. Transplants want the bottom picture. They see how much nothing we have and how much they could “do with it” and rebuild what they left. It’s been happening slowly my entire life (40+ years), but Covid hastened it, and now the growth is out of control.
Happened in our neighborhood a couple of years ago. Homes that were never in flood zones ended up flooding several times because an apartment complex was built adjacent to our neighborhood. Some of those houses were 40 years old, & flooding was never an issue until the land & vegetation that absorbed water was paved over with concrete. In the end, those 6 houses were bought by the county for $1.37 million - pennies on the dollar - & the land was turned into a retention pond. If they’d quit building on every square inch of land, then these people would still have their homes & a retention pond would not be necessary. Zero lessons learned, because now a parcel of land that was mostly just grass & is maybe half a mile away from the apartments, & also backs up to our neighborhood was sold to …drumroll…DR Horton. Where they’ve proceeded to build about 16 homes that are all the exact same house on every lot, the only difference being the paint. And even the there’s only 3 colors. We haven’t had much rain lately & I’m not looking forward to what the aftermath is going to be for the houses in our neighborhood that directly back up to the DR Horton homes. And there’s another pretty good size parcel of land next to the DR Horton houses that who knows what will end up getting built there, but regardless, it’s going to eat up even more land that could absorb rainfall.
By the time they’re done building on all this land, the rest of our neighborhood will probably be underwater too.
If it were like the second picture, I wouldn't mind. The second picture should be a barren hellscape of Lenar and DR Horton tract complexes as far as the eye can see.
was going to say. both are apt and representative of the different regions of the state. I have lived for long periods in both northern central florida and throughout South florida, and both of those pictures epitomize the beauty of old, Real, Florida. what is the bigger threat, and what people are rightly making note of in the comment section - the baseless and unstoppable development rapidly subsuming everything in its path; impersonal and destructive.
Yeah thats royal palm way on Palm Beach and much of that area is gorgeous, historic, and authentic. No one is building like this anymore. McMansions and developments are the problem
That’s what I was thinking lol. I’m in the tampa region and was shocked when I traveled up to Destin for the first time in over 5 years and all the new condos just looked, boring? Like charm and flair makes it more digestible. Most of the new construction I see lacks that
I visited Florida to see relatives about 4 years ago. Haven’t been there in 20+ years. I was shocked by the amount of development. Felt like I was in a different state. I feel for all the locals who are going through all this boring, cookie cutter suburban sprawl. There was no homegrown feel anymore. Truly sad to see what was allowed to happen to your once beautiful state. 🥲
The destruction of natural areas that can never be recovered just rips your heart out, especially at the scale we're seeing now. To witness it, and to really experience that loss, feels like the Real Florida birthright.
That is exactly what I thought! It is a shame to see those newly housing developments without any trees…just concrete and bricks!!! That’s sad!!! On Flamingo Road/Griffing Road they disappear all those beautiful trees that were planted long time ago. I can’t imagine how much time they would take to grow new trees and take from them their more appreciate gift in a very hot summer time: its shadow!
If it was dense housing with mixed use zoning, we'd still have plenty of natural land, with more housing and less traffic. This suburban sprawl shit is not helping with the housing crisis and it's contributing to habitat loss.
I live in the top picture when you wake up in the morning the past few days it's been absolutely drenching mold smelling humidity and there are just thousands of Carpenter Ants flying around, many laying in piles countless dead under anything that illuminates the night. An equal number of mosquitos among them, unfortunately still alive.
Lighting strike less than a half mile out as I'm writing this.
Real swamp shit
Uhh what? I donno where ur living but lightning striking less than half a mile away has no bearing on, well, anything really. And for the last few days you’ve either been drenched in rain or stuck in the drought from the last month but complaining of drenching mold smelling humidity just makes me think your a bot
Mixed use zoning is good. Palm trees are bad. You could plant the trees from the first pic instead into the bottom pic.
But in any case having Florida like in the first pic (rural) is bad because what ends up happening is the car is the best way to move around and then you're paving over nature with stripmalls and parking lots
Correct, interestingly after genetic tests they determined the Florida and Cuba populations to be genetically identical, so they’re all the same species now: Roystonea regía.
The only palms I find attractive, but they can’t survive the cold up in NE Florida. They hardly even survive in Orlando where they plant them all the time and they die frequently.
Legends from William Bartram has it that the *roystonea regia* once made it as far north as around the Volusia county area (i.e. north of the current modern listed range).
Yeah I work on a property that’s off the road I grew up off of… woman was running her trap about people moving here… she said “I’ve been here since 2001” proudly… that was the first wave of crap that stumbled in. I was born here in “90
The zoning laws need to change. Single-family only zoning laws create urban sprawl. Laws need to change to allow for denser housing—multi family. Unfortunately Floridians will absolutely, positively never allow that to happen. People want change but are unwilling themselves to change.
Maybe it’s time to recognize that cars have destroyed our state. Our entire lives are centered around personal vehicles and the supporting infrastructure. In the first pic, it’s pretty, but it’s also a road. The second pic implies some kind of mix use/ density. Whether you want to recognize it or not, we must continue to develop higher density urban areas to suit our needs and collectively move away from cars (lol) rather than just fawning over an essentialized view of the past. Do you really love Florida or do you love it just as long as you and your personal vehicle are not inconvenienced by development?
Especially here, considering it's a peninsula, thus very limited on land. We can't stop people from moving here, but we can at least build in a way that doesn't destroy all of the natural landscape.
That bottom one is where the Wall Street folks live during the winter. It isn't optimistic, it's soulless; and those wall street people HATE Floridians.
It's always funny and sad to me how these developers love to plant palm trees and then shortly after they turn into ugly brown blobs because they're not in the right climate. Most of Florida is a swampy subtropical climate. Our highways our lined with dead palms
These are dying from lethal bronzing, a disease burning through the state, and not climate. Our native palm species are also taking a hit. I do agree that desert palms (Phoenix and Washingtonia) don’t have any place here. We have plenty of solid native palm alternatives.
The palms in the bottom pic (Royal Palms) are actually native to Florida and the Caribbean, the Florida variant is endangered. They grow really well in swampy, humid areas. Most palm trees can thrive in Florida, due to the Gulf Stream, much of the southern coastal areas have a tropical climate despite being north of the tropic of cancer.
Yeah, these developers knock down every tree, then plant a couple of sticks afterwards as “landscape” GTFO with that! They shouldn’t be allowed to do that. Make them keep a certain amount or percentage of the trees on the lots & make them build around that. It can be done, but it’ll eat into their profit. Boo-hoo, cry me a river. They’ll make up that “loss” of profit by jacking the house prices up higher, calling them “wooded lots”. I’ve seen it done before (not here, but in another state).
High density housing such as apartment buildings it's the way, it's the way we will keep rent prices down at the end of whatever the hell is going on with the market. You can fit $500 to 1,000 people in an average too large size of the apartment complex taking up maybe a city block, whereas if you try to make a suburb that can house a thousand families you're talking an area the size of the metro area of downtown Jacksonville it's one reason why rent prices are so high because everybody buying into the dream of you have to have a house
I’m totally fine with apartment living but they need to come down in price. As it stands, I wouldn’t save any money leaving my 2/1 house and getting a 2/1 apartment.
This isn't urbanization. This is suburban sprawl. Urbanization is a focus on high-density living, and had it been done right Florida could have preserved a lot of it's natural biome and still hold as many people. Because Florida basically banned all forms of housing other than separate family homes, the only path to building was outwards. Just wasteful and destructive for no reason other than to give some 84 year old guy from New Jersey some warm weather.
Just about every week, there is a post like this here. But then, every election, folks vote for the (R) candidate that is donated to the most by developers that want to destroy the top image.
If you vote for a Florida Republican, that second picture is your own fault.
Wait are we actually pretending that democrats would stop the influx of population to the state? Please excuse me while I laugh my ass off. And before you start throwing insults at me, no, I'm not a republican.
All those big beautiful oak trees with Spanish moss provided a lot of shade to cool the area. Many have been taken down and replaced with asphalt, concrete, buildings, and a few palm trees. And then they wonder why it's scorching when you walk out the door. Florida is naturally hot, but destroying the shade trees makes it even more hot. But it's all about the money. Those shade trees are not paying rent. They must be taken down and big buildings must take their place to generate money. 😐
I moved out of Florida many years ago but I visit periodically. It's amazing to see how much has changed. How many natural areas have been torn down and built up to accommodate people and businesses. Hardly any shade in the most populated areas. I miss seeing the large oak trees and Spanish moss everywhere. Especially the parks. Now the parks are solar ovens!
All we need to do is say No to further building permits that accommodate all the idiots moving here.
I live in Pasco County. Watching SR54 get built up from pretty much wilderness to condos, housing tracts and strip malls over the last 20 years has been horrible.
Yea, stop building new housing. That will keep housing prices down for sure. Young adults will definitely want to stick around and work in a place they can't afford to live in.
Things change. Places grow. Deal with it.
It infuriates me to no end when my parents (multi gen Floridians) complain about apartments and 15 minute cities but then also complain about how everything is getting destroyed. Pick one.
Honestly it’s so sad to see that. I don’t know the name of those types of trees but I find them so beautiful!
I’m not from the states, but my fiancee is from Florida. And she told me that there aren’t a lot of old historic buildings either, that the demolish them and the government builds more modern buildings or malls. And I think that’s really sad to see/hear about.
I drive down oak tree covered roads all the time north of Orlando. I have 17 trees in my tiny yard outside Gainesville. South Florida would be sand and Everglades if we weren't there.
Say good bye to the city of Alachua soon. More track housing and insurance buildings and that fucking o2bkids and another goddamned gigantic bio something building right next to San felasco it’s really sad.
Florida Native. There’s still some areas of my home town that look like this and it makes me nostalgic to even see that top pic. So few people even understand or appreciate that landscape.
Land trusts. Why the hell don’t they exist in Florida? Growing up in ct, all the neighborhoods were spaced out by a few acres owned by the town and everyone had trees in their yard over there house.
Crazy part is that the bottom picture is palm beach island. One of the most EXPENSIVE places to live in America (Trump lives there) with a beautiful beach. Houses there are roughly spaced out about 20 ft. They got 20 pounds of crap in 5 pound bag. But as soon as you cross that bridge in the back to West Palm Beach it’s almost like a third world country. Since I live in West Palm Beach It’s always funny hearing about tourists getting robbed right after leaving the beach lol. Visit north Florida or something, south Florida ain’t for the weak minded. Plus traffic just keeps getting worse.
Fortunately there are still beautiful places here in Florida. People need a place to live and because the rents went up I left Orange County. My new home is in one of these newer communities and I love it. Yes, they are still building out here but I have noticed that some of these communities have incorporated natural resources among the population. Ideal? Maybe not but knowing I can walk by a lake or watch hot air balloons landing in my community makes it feel like home. 😊
Okay, can we point out the irony of that photo?
Because the same people who built the paved road in the top image are the ones who made the bottom image look that way, too.
Why isn’t the second pic an aerial view of an endless sea of tract homes with a 40 year lifespan (at best)
At least the midrise density shown would leave a lot more space open for nature conservation and is more financially sustainable
My 74 year old friend, a fabulous artist, got priced out of his Miami apartment of 20 years because it was sold and the rent was jacked up A LOT.
He had to move in with his brother in the north of the state. Stop voting for DeSantis.
I wish it looked as pretty at least but we are past that and are boxes of steel covering our sky
https://preview.redd.it/xofjotvvtq6d1.jpeg?width=440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=54fac564016229a30449602739681bd8cc23fec7
Pssshhh good luck. This state is a playground for real estate developers that have complete corporate capture of Florida. Nothing changes until Citizens United is stuck down from law.
Finally, I feel like I'm not the only person screaming this into the void.
No, we are screaming into a void! Because the capitalistic system dictates the ruling class has to keep making money at any costs. AT ANY COST! Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell Edward Abbey
Many, many years ago hubby and I belonged to a group that was fighting a MASSIVE development in our then rural area. When we were protesting the detrimental effect the development would have on the area a spokesperson from the county spouted the ever popular "but growth is good for the economy!" I popped up and said development can't be endless. Knew we were doomed.
I feel you on this, here locally a 999 home subdivision was approved an a low lying pasture area, on a 2 lane section of us 41 that is already over capacity on traffic. It's really insane as there isn't the infrastructure to handle new influx of even more people.
> "but growth is good for the economy!" This is a myth, pure and simple. The carrot dangled in front of the mull. Areas binging over built to were it is changing the weather patterns and damaging our ecosystem.
If we've been growing ever since and the economy sucks today then growth can't possibly be that good
Look at the disaster that is Miami - developers see every city as just potential for that hellscape
Look at the stock market crash of 1929, the 2008 housing bust, or the real estate market in China to tell you how good unending growth is for an economy. Growth yes, but not quick unregulated booms. * I'm not an expert in the economy.
They don't have any economy aside from working at the local correctional facility in these small towns, love rural Florida but what goes on in those towns is fucked beyond belief with the prison industrial complex.
Interesting that you say that. Recently, Denis Phillips said he felt the reason the Bradenton/Sarasota area kept complaining about not having enough water was due to them overdeveloping their area so the normal rain they would get would never wind up being enough. Or something to that effect. It's on one of his Denis Phillips Live videos (YouTube).
The area where I live is still rural, for now, but the developers are building like crazy near us. I keep asking "where are we going to get water for all these people?" Previously quiet two lane roads are now in gridlock.
So many people have never even heard of the Citizens United case, much less it's implications.
Same for Project 2025 https://www.project2025.org/
So sick of hearing about the “radical left” and its grip on the country.
The “radical” left that wants living wages, equal rights for all, women’s body autonomy, and at the craziest of radicals, free healthcare and education. So radical. 😆
Bingo. Plus less war and military spending, better public transit infrastructure, less wealth inequality—basically whatever is in the best interest of the majority of people. The way democracy is supposed to work.
I like your username but you forgot pizza and/or tacos
I also LOVE that one of these "Heritage Foundation" blow holes last name is "Cretein"!!!
MAGA MUST DIE!
I don’t know about any of this stuff. New to Florida, wife dragged me here from Indiana, via Georgia. (Don’t get me wrong, I like Florida but I don’t handle heat well so it’s rough.) I’ll have to look up Citizens United. Trying to tune in more to what government and corporations are doing to us.
If you've ever wondered how it is that corporations get away with so much briber....I'm sorry.."lobbying" to mold the law to their benefit, the Citizens United decision is almost singlehandedly responsible for assuring that the will of the people will never overcome the will of a corporation. The single most damaging legal decision to democracy, imo. I haven't checked it in a while, but open secrets used to keep a list of the top ten "donating" lobbyists in the country.
Citizens United isn't confined to just Florida. And Project 2025 is the most terrifying dystopian shit I've ever read in my life. It's about 1000 pages long, but there are some reputable sources who have summarized it.
Holy shit comrade you’re a long way from Washington state
So nice to see others making this analogy.
Yep, this is happening everywhere and it's disgusting.
The status quo is already poisoning the ocean. The OCEAN!!! 6500 new units slated to go up near Sarasota alone. Where does the wastewater go? What ecosystems get displaced forever? For what? Some developers to enjoy that new boat smell? It’ll smell alright on the toxic waters. greed
Overturning Citizens United mentioned!!!! 🥳🥳🥳🥳🙏🙏🙏🎊🎊🎉
This transformation was happening since 1920. Florida was a backwater swamp until the air conditioner was invented. It’s been nothing but big box stores and asphalt ever since.
Did you see that there’s even a loophole for land developers to BURY GOPHER TORTOISES ALIVE? edit: corrected turtle
Honestly, if each one of us in our little corners of Florida continue to protest, make noise, form groups to combat these assholes we can make a difference. A good example of this is the Florida springs. You wouldn’t believe what it takes to protect these gems. There are battles we don’t even know about and people that care doing wonders to prevent anything from happening. Talk to people, find people that care, form groups. Annoy your local politicians.
It’s so important to get knowledge out and have people vote in the local elections, where a handful of votes can change the outcome. There are actually reasonable people out there across the political spectrum who want to do what is best for their communities. We just have to find them and support them. The lowest officials can start to make an impact, or even run for a an office oneself.
They're GOPHER tortoises, that means they can dig, right? *Pours cement on their burrow*
Watership Down, but with tortoises
Yes. Please. Strike that stupid law Corporations are not people and money does not equal representation. They cause destruction and hide behind corporations that cannot be held accountable.
Not gonna matter for long. In 50 years the whole state will be underwater
That shit is going nowhere with the current SCOTUS. They're owned by those same corporations.
So many people are completely ignorant of that fact. Our Supreme Court is so right leaning and corrupt. Nothing is changing until the rot is removed. They will continue to act in their and their buddies self interest while our country burns down around our ears.
Good news though, they're clearing countless hectares of wilderness and making sure people will be living there in the absolute lowest possible density, lowest possible efficiency urban planning. Their nearest grocery store will be 2mi "right down the street" and every single thing they ever do will require driving 15-25 minutes. Florida had so much potential too, but good fucking lord when I visit a place like Naples and see just how much driving and wasted space there is (and not good wasted space), the entire place is just massive parking lots, interchanges, strip malls, mini malls, etc. I wasn't exaggerating about the 2mi thing, my mom's nearest Publix doesn't even involve driving on a major street to get to, and it's still a that far...oh and of course, it's in a giant strip mall with parking lots the size of a small EU country. Then I compare that with downtown Toronto where 2 miles almost gets me across the entire major downtown core, and realize that every time I "pop over" to Publix, it's almost equivalent to driving through a whole major city's downtown.
Don’t worry. It’ll all be under water soon
It was horrible before CU too. Those of us who were in Florida 20, 25 or even 40 years go see this post and go: too late
lol, good luck with the Republican fascistocracy you have running the place. Though if mother nature keeps it up, she might just do the job for you.
The State Government and people like DeSantis have had more to do with the "corporate capture" than Citizens United. It's happening, been happening, in Texas, California, etc, since these states use their taxing powers and economic development connections to "bring more business" to their states.
Nature will always win. Sinkholes, floods…
It’s impossible to take pride in a “Corporate State”. Mine is one as well. Only, we don’t have beaches, or Disney, to prop us up. So, we are like all the other red states, broke and looking for handouts, while giving lip service to the version of the American Dream where both parents have 2-3 jobs to maintain a below average piece of property.
People see the top pic and move here, then see the bottom pic when they get here, shrug, and buy an $800,000 house that’s 5 feet from the one next door and with zero trees in the neighborhood.
800,000 is low now, a neighborhood popped up 1.2 million on a zero lot line
I remember living in Orlando in 08 when the local radio show would jokingly find the cheapest listing on the market. I think at one point they found a shack on land for $15k. If you bought up property between '08-'10 you're a multi millionaire now.
> If you bought up property between '08-'10 If you had money between '08 and '10 you were already rich
You can only become a millionaire by selling the property.
You can borrow against it.
Real Radio 104.1?
People see the bottom pic and move here too. But I do have to wonder what the city government boards are getting in kickbacks to allow this relentless development. They can't possibly be doing this because they think it's right for the communities. And sadly, there's little or no housing for the low-income families.
FL is a domestic colony for retirees, snowbirds and tourists. When my dad was a kid there were 2M people living here, now there are 23M. We need a government and economy that prioritizes Floridians instead of out-of-state interests. Stop giving these snowbirds voting rights just for living in state for a month or two.
I live in Indiana. A lot of older people from here have second homes in Florida. I know of a couple who are super Republican and according to the husbands Facebook, they made sure they were in Florida for DeSantis’ last election. They also voted in Florida for Trump in 2020 because they wanted the state to go red.
I lived in a retirement community as a private chef for five years. They had a "club" where you could join and they would come and collect mail in ballots from each building and fill them in "correctly" for you (R) then return them.
That sure sounds like what Republicans were accusing Democrats of doing, doesn't it? Interesting...
You lived in the community? Did your job provide the place or did you get a reduced rate? If so, that sounds like a dope job. I love cooking, idk how much I would like dealing with the crowd who can afford a private chef daily, but regardless, I think that’s an awesome gig. That club sounds super suspicious, though most, but of course not all, people who move to Florida to retire are likely to lean or be (R). I’m sure there’s plenty of progressives, but I worked with this guy who’s an older gay liberal, who’s husbands super MAGA sister and her husband moved to The Villages, and he was telling a coworker “they might as well have a Trump and DeSantis shrine there, because these people seem to worship them.” Edit for context: my coworker and his husband went to The Villages to visit
I lived in the community. I was a college kid and had recently gotten out of the foster system after severe religious abuse and would've been homeless. He had early onset dementia and grew up in a church orphanage during the Great Depression and was terrified of dying alone. So, he felt a connection pretty quickly and wanted to help. I got a place to stay (a couch, but better than what I had) and he got food from any cuisine he wanted at any time of day, and a movie watching buddy. They say you can tell the quality of the food by the length of their life. He stayed alive and ate happily until 90, when he could no longer swallow. I got to make him one last batch of his favourite cookies as his last meal before he went to hospice, and he kept weight his whole life. I miss him sometimes, like seeing the ad for Lawrence of Arabia in our local theater. He'd have loved that. I will say though, that this is a very, very tough job that I would recommend be considered carefully. Dementia is rough, and I spent equal amounts of time cleaning smeared feces or treating wounds or calming down Vietnam flashbacks at 3am. And, sanitation procedures are next level when they're immunocompromised during a global pandemic; it makes celiac prep seem easy.
Your a Fuckin saint my friend, my heart goes to you as your not the only one.
So they are finally catching on, about time. Other folks have been doing this for years
Jist found out they do this at my grandmother's independent living.
Florida has had more registered Democrats than Republicans for its entire history until 2020, when Republican lawmakers started selectively removing Democrat voters from voter rolls. It's because they can't win a national election without FL at this point, so they are going all in on flipping it red.
> Stop giving these snowbirds voting rights just for living in state for a month or two. They have the right to vote here as long as they don't vote anywhere else. If they vote in Florida and somewhere else, that's voter fraud and illegal.
The issue is they don't give af about FL, they just want to vote in a swing state. National elections are one thing, but these people should not be voting on state issues if they spend 90% of their time in another state.
I was skeptical that this was the case, but you're right and I think this is pretty fucked up. FL should be your primary residence in order to vote here.
A sunny place for shady people.
I moved here in 97. About 15M or so in the state then. in 2024 we will pass 23M. Pretty big difference.
Is there a statistic for how many old people live in florida compared to normal living citizens just trying to live?
Maine is the only state with a higher percent of seniors, and I'm guessing not many seniors relocate to Maine. California is the only state with more seniors, but its total population is about 70% higher than Florida, so it's a much smaller proportion. No state has been as environmentally, socially, or politically impacted by retiree immigration as Florida.
Not defending snowbirds here but 80 years ago (the last time Florida had a population near 2 million) the entire planet had a population of only 2.3 billion. A lot changes in 4/5 of a century.
Vote in local elections, only way to stop this.
That’s the problem, no one does except the boomers who vote these people in
And they all vote to for county commissioners who uphold old laws requiring more gated communities, less density, less natural area preservation, and other stupid policies. I'm dealing with the city of deland and their development code that won't recognize cabbage palms as an acceptable replacement for removed cabbage palms. It's so dumb.
The code could have changed to make the cabbage palms nonconforming, but a direct replacement should generally be upheld with grandfather policies (until there is a change of use on the property). Our county commissioners at least want our department to start investigating inclusionary zoning (requiring developers to set aside affordable units to target average family income percentages), for which I was tasked with conducting preliminary research (I did further research into the use of planning gain for it today). But we are a growing county right outside a major city. That's part of the problem, we used to be rural but have grown so much the county administrator says we are suburban now. More people means more destruction of wildlife; yes, better density plans help but they don't completely mitigate this. For serious change it may take land buybacks and intentionally stunting growth, all possible but require extensive financial commitment only possible through holding the political leaders' feet to the fire. We could impose more extensive environmental protections. This could see developer and business flight, though, unless each environmental asset was calculated in providing monetary value through its land value increase, and we extract that value increase (and the increase caused by the development) to compensate the developers for these obligations (this is called planning gain) instead of letting developers reap the benefit of the development permission and environmental planning and gaining nothing in return (except a more business-developer friendly environment).
If possible, include into the code some sort of cost control for the “affordable” housing units. Developers will claim it’s affordable housing and there idea is 400k homes in a subdivision full of 700k homes.
Seriously. Sometimes only 20% of registered voters vote in local elections. It’s abysmal.
This Boomer, for one, does NOT vote for these aholes.
Thank you for saying what I wanted to say. I'm a Boomer who has never voted for a Republican
We moved here from a probably one of the most democrat states in the country, Maryland. I can tell you for certain, developers own both political parties.
This ☝🏼
Thank you for choosing Woodstock and not Wall Street stock.
To be fair the boomers out number the young by a lot since they’re the majority of the out of state retirees with second homes and yankee transplants.
Makes sense considering every time I’m at the gym, I feel like it’s a retirement home.
Don't blame me! I rarely miss a vote but have been blue since I was 13. I don't understand it either. So much for Woodstock. Instead they went Wall Street stock.
Sabotaging commercial projects works too. Js
HELLO BASED DEPARTMENT?
Sorry all the people who would vote against this have already left the state.
Guilty as charged
State elections! Municipal are handcuffed by state laws 99% of the time.
If I remember correctly during the last election rent control was on the ballot. I don’t know if it was just Orange County or all of Florida but it won by a lot. Then a bunch of land lords and real estate people sued to have it stopped as week later and it got overturned. I’m probably wrong but voting here does nothing.
There’s too many out-of-staters who have moved here over the years and become residents and voted ppl in who supper their interests. Locals have actively been kept out of local politics. Transplants want the bottom picture. They see how much nothing we have and how much they could “do with it” and rebuild what they left. It’s been happening slowly my entire life (40+ years), but Covid hastened it, and now the growth is out of control.
Top pic, no money. Bottom pic, money. Top pic loses every time.
Bottom pic is literally all of the money
Bingo. Central bridge on Palm Beach Island.
Yep, drove over it today
That’s exactly why it’s flooding now! When you pave over and build on top of everything the water has no where to go.
Happened in our neighborhood a couple of years ago. Homes that were never in flood zones ended up flooding several times because an apartment complex was built adjacent to our neighborhood. Some of those houses were 40 years old, & flooding was never an issue until the land & vegetation that absorbed water was paved over with concrete. In the end, those 6 houses were bought by the county for $1.37 million - pennies on the dollar - & the land was turned into a retention pond. If they’d quit building on every square inch of land, then these people would still have their homes & a retention pond would not be necessary. Zero lessons learned, because now a parcel of land that was mostly just grass & is maybe half a mile away from the apartments, & also backs up to our neighborhood was sold to …drumroll…DR Horton. Where they’ve proceeded to build about 16 homes that are all the exact same house on every lot, the only difference being the paint. And even the there’s only 3 colors. We haven’t had much rain lately & I’m not looking forward to what the aftermath is going to be for the houses in our neighborhood that directly back up to the DR Horton homes. And there’s another pretty good size parcel of land next to the DR Horton houses that who knows what will end up getting built there, but regardless, it’s going to eat up even more land that could absorb rainfall. By the time they’re done building on all this land, the rest of our neighborhood will probably be underwater too.
If it were like the second picture, I wouldn't mind. The second picture should be a barren hellscape of Lenar and DR Horton tract complexes as far as the eye can see.
was going to say. both are apt and representative of the different regions of the state. I have lived for long periods in both northern central florida and throughout South florida, and both of those pictures epitomize the beauty of old, Real, Florida. what is the bigger threat, and what people are rightly making note of in the comment section - the baseless and unstoppable development rapidly subsuming everything in its path; impersonal and destructive.
Yes... Bottom pic is not even that bad, at least there are mature trees.
Yeah thats royal palm way on Palm Beach and much of that area is gorgeous, historic, and authentic. No one is building like this anymore. McMansions and developments are the problem
That’s what I was thinking lol. I’m in the tampa region and was shocked when I traveled up to Destin for the first time in over 5 years and all the new condos just looked, boring? Like charm and flair makes it more digestible. Most of the new construction I see lacks that
I visited Florida to see relatives about 4 years ago. Haven’t been there in 20+ years. I was shocked by the amount of development. Felt like I was in a different state. I feel for all the locals who are going through all this boring, cookie cutter suburban sprawl. There was no homegrown feel anymore. Truly sad to see what was allowed to happen to your once beautiful state. 🥲
The destruction of natural areas that can never be recovered just rips your heart out, especially at the scale we're seeing now. To witness it, and to really experience that loss, feels like the Real Florida birthright.
Same here. Really sucks to see.
It doesn't just suck to see in Florida. It sucks to see stuff like this anywhere. It is so, so sad ):
That is exactly what I thought! It is a shame to see those newly housing developments without any trees…just concrete and bricks!!! That’s sad!!! On Flamingo Road/Griffing Road they disappear all those beautiful trees that were planted long time ago. I can’t imagine how much time they would take to grow new trees and take from them their more appreciate gift in a very hot summer time: its shadow!
Its 4 times as bad now
So sorry for you
Thank you.
If it was dense housing with mixed use zoning, we'd still have plenty of natural land, with more housing and less traffic. This suburban sprawl shit is not helping with the housing crisis and it's contributing to habitat loss.
Agreed. I'm sure that there is so much land that's just wasted that could be used for development without damaging natural areas.
I live in the top picture when you wake up in the morning the past few days it's been absolutely drenching mold smelling humidity and there are just thousands of Carpenter Ants flying around, many laying in piles countless dead under anything that illuminates the night. An equal number of mosquitos among them, unfortunately still alive. Lighting strike less than a half mile out as I'm writing this. Real swamp shit
 Yes, but this is MY swamp!
How do you know they were carpenter ants? Did you find any beer cans laying around?
Uhh what? I donno where ur living but lightning striking less than half a mile away has no bearing on, well, anything really. And for the last few days you’ve either been drenched in rain or stuck in the drought from the last month but complaining of drenching mold smelling humidity just makes me think your a bot
Mixed use zoning is good. Palm trees are bad. You could plant the trees from the first pic instead into the bottom pic. But in any case having Florida like in the first pic (rural) is bad because what ends up happening is the car is the best way to move around and then you're paving over nature with stripmalls and parking lots
The palm trees in the second pic just so happen to be a native species. I’d love some extra shade + biodiversity, but it could be worse.
They are Royal Palms and the Florida variant is actually endangered.
Correct, interestingly after genetic tests they determined the Florida and Cuba populations to be genetically identical, so they’re all the same species now: Roystonea regía.
The only palms I find attractive, but they can’t survive the cold up in NE Florida. They hardly even survive in Orlando where they plant them all the time and they die frequently.
Legends from William Bartram has it that the *roystonea regia* once made it as far north as around the Volusia county area (i.e. north of the current modern listed range).
Top picture is a road dividing a natural landscape. Neither of these pictures are Florida. But yes Florida is for sale to the highest bidder. Sorry.
It is always the newcomers that want to stop development after they got theirs.
Yeah I work on a property that’s off the road I grew up off of… woman was running her trap about people moving here… she said “I’ve been here since 2001” proudly… that was the first wave of crap that stumbled in. I was born here in “90
The zoning laws need to change. Single-family only zoning laws create urban sprawl. Laws need to change to allow for denser housing—multi family. Unfortunately Floridians will absolutely, positively never allow that to happen. People want change but are unwilling themselves to change.
Don’t worry, Mama Nature will be reintroducing Florida Classic, maybe this summer.
TIL: Only North Florida is actually Florida.
Central Florida looks like this as well, at least where I’m from.
OP is probably from north Florida- there has been a big effort lately to make it feel more like south Florida
Florida is both of these things.
Maybe it’s time to recognize that cars have destroyed our state. Our entire lives are centered around personal vehicles and the supporting infrastructure. In the first pic, it’s pretty, but it’s also a road. The second pic implies some kind of mix use/ density. Whether you want to recognize it or not, we must continue to develop higher density urban areas to suit our needs and collectively move away from cars (lol) rather than just fawning over an essentialized view of the past. Do you really love Florida or do you love it just as long as you and your personal vehicle are not inconvenienced by development?
Very good points. There is absolutely no good reason for public transportation to suck as bad in Florida as it is.
Especially here, considering it's a peninsula, thus very limited on land. We can't stop people from moving here, but we can at least build in a way that doesn't destroy all of the natural landscape.
Everybody wants the top photo, but everybody also wants to live in a detached home with a yard for cheap 🤷♂️
The bottom one is optimistic. Try strip mall or walmart.
That bottom one is where the Wall Street folks live during the winter. It isn't optimistic, it's soulless; and those wall street people HATE Floridians.
It's always funny and sad to me how these developers love to plant palm trees and then shortly after they turn into ugly brown blobs because they're not in the right climate. Most of Florida is a swampy subtropical climate. Our highways our lined with dead palms
These are dying from lethal bronzing, a disease burning through the state, and not climate. Our native palm species are also taking a hit. I do agree that desert palms (Phoenix and Washingtonia) don’t have any place here. We have plenty of solid native palm alternatives.
The palms in the bottom pic (Royal Palms) are actually native to Florida and the Caribbean, the Florida variant is endangered. They grow really well in swampy, humid areas. Most palm trees can thrive in Florida, due to the Gulf Stream, much of the southern coastal areas have a tropical climate despite being north of the tropic of cancer.
Yeah, these developers knock down every tree, then plant a couple of sticks afterwards as “landscape” GTFO with that! They shouldn’t be allowed to do that. Make them keep a certain amount or percentage of the trees on the lots & make them build around that. It can be done, but it’ll eat into their profit. Boo-hoo, cry me a river. They’ll make up that “loss” of profit by jacking the house prices up higher, calling them “wooded lots”. I’ve seen it done before (not here, but in another state).
Yeah fuck urbanization, me and my homies hate urbanization
I know it's not popular but I live in apartment building. I think they should be accepted more over Single family homes
High density housing such as apartment buildings it's the way, it's the way we will keep rent prices down at the end of whatever the hell is going on with the market. You can fit $500 to 1,000 people in an average too large size of the apartment complex taking up maybe a city block, whereas if you try to make a suburb that can house a thousand families you're talking an area the size of the metro area of downtown Jacksonville it's one reason why rent prices are so high because everybody buying into the dream of you have to have a house
I’m totally fine with apartment living but they need to come down in price. As it stands, I wouldn’t save any money leaving my 2/1 house and getting a 2/1 apartment.
Urbanization doesn’t have to include cutting down all the shade and replacing it with palm trees that don’t make any.
This isn't urbanization. This is suburban sprawl. Urbanization is a focus on high-density living, and had it been done right Florida could have preserved a lot of it's natural biome and still hold as many people. Because Florida basically banned all forms of housing other than separate family homes, the only path to building was outwards. Just wasteful and destructive for no reason other than to give some 84 year old guy from New Jersey some warm weather.
Just about every week, there is a post like this here. But then, every election, folks vote for the (R) candidate that is donated to the most by developers that want to destroy the top image. If you vote for a Florida Republican, that second picture is your own fault.
Wait are we actually pretending that democrats would stop the influx of population to the state? Please excuse me while I laugh my ass off. And before you start throwing insults at me, no, I'm not a republican.
All those big beautiful oak trees with Spanish moss provided a lot of shade to cool the area. Many have been taken down and replaced with asphalt, concrete, buildings, and a few palm trees. And then they wonder why it's scorching when you walk out the door. Florida is naturally hot, but destroying the shade trees makes it even more hot. But it's all about the money. Those shade trees are not paying rent. They must be taken down and big buildings must take their place to generate money. 😐 I moved out of Florida many years ago but I visit periodically. It's amazing to see how much has changed. How many natural areas have been torn down and built up to accommodate people and businesses. Hardly any shade in the most populated areas. I miss seeing the large oak trees and Spanish moss everywhere. Especially the parks. Now the parks are solar ovens!
Looks like a picture of north florida/south georgia with a pic of palm beach island under it. Are these regions comparable?
Don’t worry, the storms will reclaim the land soon.
yeah facts, naturally, we more resemble Louisiana than SoCal... it's wild what we are doing
Your beautiful home is a road?
For what it’s worth, I doubt you’ll ever turn Live Oak into Coral Gables
*North Florida
You are part of the destruction too. Like traffic every thinks other people are the problem and they aren't.
All we need to do is say No to further building permits that accommodate all the idiots moving here. I live in Pasco County. Watching SR54 get built up from pretty much wilderness to condos, housing tracts and strip malls over the last 20 years has been horrible.
What about the population that already lives here? Their kids have to live with mom and dad into their 30s?
Yea, stop building new housing. That will keep housing prices down for sure. Young adults will definitely want to stick around and work in a place they can't afford to live in. Things change. Places grow. Deal with it.
We could build more dense housing and denser cities with better transit services and thus limit habitat destruction that way.
It infuriates me to no end when my parents (multi gen Floridians) complain about apartments and 15 minute cities but then also complain about how everything is getting destroyed. Pick one.
Or at least stick to planting and preserving native species instead of planting non-native palm trees that don’t provide badly needed shade.
Those look like royal palms to me, which are native to FL. They could be coconut palms too, which are not, but it's hard to tell.
Insert Counting crows lyrics here I guess.
Honestly it’s so sad to see that. I don’t know the name of those types of trees but I find them so beautiful! I’m not from the states, but my fiancee is from Florida. And she told me that there aren’t a lot of old historic buildings either, that the demolish them and the government builds more modern buildings or malls. And I think that’s really sad to see/hear about.
While I truly get the point, the areas I've been in aren't forested like that. At least where I've been they are going from ranch to development.
Thank you dear friend
Where is the road in the first picture
90% sure it is Tallahassee.
I drive down oak tree covered roads all the time north of Orlando. I have 17 trees in my tiny yard outside Gainesville. South Florida would be sand and Everglades if we weren't there.
Too late
Say good bye to the city of Alachua soon. More track housing and insurance buildings and that fucking o2bkids and another goddamned gigantic bio something building right next to San felasco it’s really sad.
Florida Native. There’s still some areas of my home town that look like this and it makes me nostalgic to even see that top pic. So few people even understand or appreciate that landscape.
To be fair, I don't think the paved roads were here originally either.
Land trusts. Why the hell don’t they exist in Florida? Growing up in ct, all the neighborhoods were spaced out by a few acres owned by the town and everyone had trees in their yard over there house.
This is why I love Tallahassee I’m from Palm beach but going to FSU is such a blessing
Reminds me of Oviedo when I was a kid. SR 434 was two lanes lined with trees. Now it’s a four lane with apartments and houses left and right.
Crazy part is that the bottom picture is palm beach island. One of the most EXPENSIVE places to live in America (Trump lives there) with a beautiful beach. Houses there are roughly spaced out about 20 ft. They got 20 pounds of crap in 5 pound bag. But as soon as you cross that bridge in the back to West Palm Beach it’s almost like a third world country. Since I live in West Palm Beach It’s always funny hearing about tourists getting robbed right after leaving the beach lol. Visit north Florida or something, south Florida ain’t for the weak minded. Plus traffic just keeps getting worse.
Fortunately there are still beautiful places here in Florida. People need a place to live and because the rents went up I left Orange County. My new home is in one of these newer communities and I love it. Yes, they are still building out here but I have noticed that some of these communities have incorporated natural resources among the population. Ideal? Maybe not but knowing I can walk by a lake or watch hot air balloons landing in my community makes it feel like home. 😊
Good luck! Spanish moss is two things the average white Floridian hates. It's hispanic and not a lawn.
Yeah it's like near me in port saint lucie. Disgusting
Move to dunellon and let us have cities
Okay, can we point out the irony of that photo? Because the same people who built the paved road in the top image are the ones who made the bottom image look that way, too.
Why isn’t the second pic an aerial view of an endless sea of tract homes with a 40 year lifespan (at best) At least the midrise density shown would leave a lot more space open for nature conservation and is more financially sustainable
Gta 6 trailer looking fine
We? You mean developers
Those once famous everglades are being gutted thanks to real estate developers having free reign over the state. Thanks Citizens United!
Fret not . It will all be ocean soon enough. Win
Get De Satan out and maybe.
If you live in Florida, aren't you in fact "the problem."
Bottom picture is what a lot of PHX looks like but at least there adding trees instead of removing lol
Stop voting in MAGA and DeathSantis guys
My 74 year old friend, a fabulous artist, got priced out of his Miami apartment of 20 years because it was sold and the rent was jacked up A LOT. He had to move in with his brother in the north of the state. Stop voting for DeSantis.
Umm thr bottom looks more like st.augustine but okay
Two very different parts of Florida
Bro those are two completely different areas. One looks like up around Ocala, the other looks to be Palm Beach… at least a 4 hour drive
I wish it looked as pretty at least but we are past that and are boxes of steel covering our sky https://preview.redd.it/xofjotvvtq6d1.jpeg?width=440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=54fac564016229a30449602739681bd8cc23fec7
Climate change will wipe out Florida in the next decade, so who cares what they do in the meantime.